Aubrey Huff tells me his body is “ripped” and that Pilates will be a key to his 2012 revival

I just got off the phone with Aubrey Huff, the first newspaper interview he has given since his awful 2011 season ended and the Giants called him out for poor conditioning. Though Huff believes his slump was more mental than physical, he said the Giants were right to criticize him.

He also said he knows he will have to compete for playing time with Brandon Belt and Brett Pill, and he expects to be in tip-top shape come spring training after spending most of the offseason working out at the renowned API facility in Arizona and resuming Pilates, a form of stretching that he credited for the way he felt in 2010, when he was among the best hitters in baseball.

“I think I’m preparing a lot better this offseason as far as Pilates,” Huff said as he and his family were driving back to Arizona from a holiday vacation in his native Texas. “I’m feeling physically better this year. I know I’m making a lot of money to go out and get it done, and last year I didn’t do it. I took a lot of heat, and I should have.

“I’ve got to go to spring training and prove myself and basically win a job, because I’ve got two young kids breathing down my neck.”

In his first year as a Giant, Huff hit .290 with 26 homers, 86 RBIs and an .891 OPS. In 2011, he fell off a statistical cliff, batting .246 with with 12 homers, 59 RBIs and a .696 OPS. The day after the final regular-season game, general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy tore into Huff for the way he prepared for 2011 after signing a two-year, $22 million contract.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Huff said. “I heard it. I read it. It’s warranted. When you had the year I had before, finishing seventh in the league in hitting, and then being one of the worst players the next year, I’ve got to get the blame. I don’t think I was that out of shape. I was just so mentally in the toilet. I just never turned it around. It just kept snowbaling. Things like that happen in baseball.”

Huff’s wife is a Pilates instructor, and before the 2010 season he did it three times a week. His muscles felt better, his back didn’t hurt as much and his general sense of well-being was enhanced. Then, last offseason, “for some stupid reason I didn’t do it again.”

He acknowledged that the short offseason after the World Series played a part in that.

Then, Huff started slowly in 2011.

“I got into a rut,” he said. “Then it got compounded and it became more mental. It kind of got rough there at the end. I lost a lot of confidence last year. You guys saw it in the clubhouse. I wasn’t the same guy. It’s hard to be so confident when you’re so bad.”

Huff downplays the conditioning aspect somewhat, saying he did the same offseason workout the past two winters aside from the Pilates. Still, he moved his family to Arizona for the winter so he could work out at API.

“That place is a little more professional,” he said, “and I wanted to push myself there.”

His success or failure will not be difficult to ascertain. You can’t hide with a 162-game season. But Huff bragged about how good he looked during a TV show taping today, saying, “My body is ripped.”

“I don’t want to get out of this game having a year like I did last year,” he said. “I want to go out this year and do the best I can . All I can do is what I’m doing this offseason and let the chips fall where they may.”